The honor roll highlights high schools that have improved offerings of AP classes and have seen improvements in student test scores.
A handful of area high schools made the College Board’s fourth annual AP District Honor Roll.
Inclusion on the honor roll is based on increased participation and access for students to Advanced Placement tests, and improved students’ scores in 2013 compared to the past four years.
The high schools that made the list this year include Nazareth Area and Easton Area in Northampton County; Delaware Valley Regional and Hunterdon Central Regional in Hunterdon County; and Parkland, Northwestern Lehigh and Southern Lehigh in Lehigh County.
The College Board is a nonprofit organization created in 1900 to expand access to higher education. In 1955, the College Board developed the AP Program, which has enabled millions of students to take college-level courses and exams and earn college credit or placement while still in high school.
Of the 728 Pennsylvania schools that participate in the Advanced Placement program, Nazareth Area High School is one of seven that made the honor roll three years in a row.
“This is a great way to acknowledge how hard our kids and teachers are working,” Nazareth Area High School Principal Alan Davis said at a school board meeting last week. “We are very proud to be a part of it.”
Of the 214 Nazareth Area students who took AP exams last year, 181 received a score of 3 or higher. The exams are graded on a scale of zero to 5, with 5 being the highest score. Students who score a 3 or higher can typically receive college credit.
Nazareth Area High School offers 16 AP courses covering literature, math, economics, science, art and history. According to Davis, the most popular course is AP psychology.